First things first, you guys are gonna hate me. As I have no pictures. Well at least not yet since the radio isnt installed first. I wanted to post this message last Friday when I got the radio...but I felt that would have been waaaay too far out of that window.

I just cant take it anymore and I have to Tell THEN Show!

Bought a Galaxy 959 CB radio with sideband. I know very little about radios but luckily my Jeep Buddy on this forum (EmbarkChief) does. So not only am I excited to get this installed, but I also get to learn a whole new world (world of radio!)

Anyways, we plan on mounting it like my buddy has his. A piece of squared aluminum piping secured by the door frame screws on the rollcage that goes across the sunvisors. Its a big radio so mounting it low is near impossible. I think Ill like the high up look/feel better anyways.

Gonna run the antenna wiring (of course) thru the rollcage padding and the Antenna will be mounted centered on the third brake light post by the 2 existing screws on the back of it. Will be fabricating a shelf mount of sorts for the through bolt thing to fasten to. Then with the quick disconnect the antenna will be secured but easy to remove and stow away.

Anyways. It's all getting installed Saturday Morning, then after a few other minor upkeep things (diff fluids and rear brake pads) we are doing to our Jeeps, we may go offroading a bit to try out the radio!!

Anyways, I'm a newb when it comes to Radio-ing...any pointers for things on the road? Any lingo I should know? (I know the general 10-4 yadda yadda) but I know theres a whole way of asking opposite traveling truckers and such if there are any cops up ahead and whatnot.

Ugh, I'm impatient! When I finally bought the radio, I wanted it installed Yesterday! LOL. Pictures (install and maybe some offroading ones) to come hopefully Saturday Night!!!

 

You'll love your Galaxy. I have a 919 in the Jeep and a DX33HP in my pickup. Both those radios I got this Spring. I debated on SSB, but noone I run with has it so I passed.

You may want to consider a mount setup like I did:



The bracket is just scrap I hacked up from the ends of my OEM bumper. The rear of the radio is secured by piece of square aluminum with Velcro on either side. Works great.

 

i followed tslewisz's idea, so here is mine!! welcome to cb land!
I used two brackets that came with a sirius sportster.

cant get much closer


my old mount was this... a bar mounted to roll bar just infront of door surround screws on top. problem was the soft top latches hit it and made for a PITA time closing them,so i redid it after seeing tslewisz's one. good luck!!

 

Yah thats basically how I'll be mounting my radio, with the bar going across the roll cage. I have plans for possibly using that bar for mounting other things in the future. My buddy has fabbed a way that it doesnt interfere with the soft top at all so we are just duplicating what he has. Not sure about mounting it to that ring...we might look into it. I know its probably very secure, but in my mind I can just see that thing bouncing around and vibrating with every little bump in the road. (although I know that it is probably rock solid haha)

Hang tight for a couple of days, Saturday night after it gets installed and we get some wheeling done ill post up some pictures of the install.

I think I'm really gonna like this Galaxy 959. From what I read from others reviews, its stellar. (no pun intended)

As far as having the SSB, my friend has it on his, and so do a few others. It only made sense that I just go ahead and spend the extra cash and get a super duper radio. its not like CB radios and their technology is an overly expensive hobby. After the radio, antenna, cable, thru bolt, quick disconnect I was still a good ways away from $300. Can't really poo poo that.

 

yea it is super solid and does not move at all. its actually mounted useing the 2 blots that mount the center footman loop. it just rests on rear view, but it doesnt support it. good luck n post pics when ur done!!

 

As promised guys, sorry its a day late. (But I has lots of pictures!)

Got with EmbarkChief this weekend at his workplace which happened to have the majority of the tools we needed to tool this up.

First up, we have a 2 inch Steel Rail. the nobs of the door jam where we plan to mount this dont fit in the actual rail so we had to cut off a few inches of the ends and then grounded down the lil lip that we couldnt get flush. That way we can get the bolt as nice and secure as possible, to decrease the chance for rubbing on the soft top, and to make it look nice! (youll see the final cut/smoothing on the pictures when its painted and mounted)




Then it was time to paint and prime it. Primed it black then painted over it with a gloss red to match "FIREWARRIOR" (my Jeep)


Time to start running some wire. First off is the power wires from the CB to the battery. When you pop the hood, on the left side waaay in the back youll see a yellowish foam filling stuff. This is actually a hole that goes through your firewall and out the other side.


Now if you pop the side panel of your dash off (it easilly pops right out with little effort) you can run your wire lead with the power cables through the foamy filling. just punch through. After that, remove the paneling on the A frame on the passenger side. The bottom piece pops out by metal clips just like the top panel above your radio. The next part in the corner pops out but takes a bit more force. Lastly, the panel on the passenger side along the top of your windshield pops out also! (amazing eh? no surprise there!)

From that point, I ran the Power cable up the pillar and the coax cable I ran from where the CB would be mounted along the top of the windshield. Then from here its the easiest step of them all. Unzip the padding on the roll cage and run it all the way to the trunk!


From here we placed the Support bar along the top spanning the rollcage, hooked up the wires and then we were good to go! Actually...Not really...Gotta do something with the Antenna!










So from this point on, after the coax cable comes out of the rollcage padding, pull back some of the carpet there on the passenger side and run it through the trunk hatch strap. You have to cut your coax cable, tape off the end, swear a bunch, and then feed it through. Youll have to pop off that plastic panel on the back of your trunk door and youll see a rubber gromet that covers a hole. Punch a hole in that rubber gromet and you're home free. Solder the end coax cable back together.

For the next part we built a shelf of sorts with a hole in the middle that we could run a coax Through Bolt through.





With the through bolt secured to the shelf, we mounted it to the Third light arm by using 2 already existing screws on the back of it! Easy eh!? From there all we had to do was attach the Quick Disconnect for the antenna, and then the antenna itself. Took it to the CB and Cafe shop where I bought the stuff from. At lunch at the Cafe side of the CB shop while one of the guys that runs the place with his wife went out and tuned my Antenna! FINISHED!


Afterward: This bar is tough. Very sturdy, no shaking or vibrating or any movement even when going over potholes and rough terrain (Yeah...I had to test it)

The rail itself makes for a nice lil grab for your hand. I find myself hanging my hand on the rail as it is pretty comfy. EmbarkChief and I laughed about selling some precut rails and the antenna shelves haha. The bar we measured 50 inches long, and the holes for the hand bolts that hold the door frame in place is 49 and 1/4 inches across. The holes are cut pretty close to the end of the bar, but we didnt want to risk going too big and having rubbing. Ive done quite a bit of testing now with the products we used and Ive had no soft top rubbing issues at all with the measurements and size of railing. All in all, I think we did it right the first time so we wont have to go back and fix it later! So far my parents and a couple other friends ive showed it too are pretty impressed by how nice and tough it is!

Thanks again EmbarkChief for helping me out, see you at the PINS run! (now that we can talk to each other on the ride down there!)

 

I'm glad you are pleased with the results of the install I was really pleased at the range we were able to achieve even in less than optimum conditions Saturday night. I'm looking forward to doing some more testing in that regard this week.

 

Yeah man, 11 or so miles in the middle of city clutter on Sideband was pretty impressive. At times I thought I could faintly hear you, but wasnt sure if it was from my cell phone or from the CB...it was just too busy on the radio Saturday night to really test it! Need to get with you hopefully soon (maybe this week) to do the final steps of running the wire under the carpet and through the strap. I went ahead and posted it in the step by step but sadly time was of the essence and of course as you know, had to put that on the side.

I'm uberly pleased. Now that Ive spent some good time on channel 19 listening to the truckers...I wonder wtf some of these guys are doing/talking about on the channel. Some of them just spam nonsense and whatnot for no apparent reason...bad radio form imo.

 

Channel 19 in the city is like a bad chat room. Once you get out of town it calms down.

 

Nicely done, Rawb!